A Renaissance Moment

Every so often, the economy shifts in a way that changes how people work and, more importantly, how they think about work itself. We are standing in one of those moments now. Call it what it is: a renaissance. The original Renaissance was born of disruption, when old certainties collapsed and people responded with creativity, craft, and commerce. Ours is no different.

Across the country and around the world, women are reassessing their relationship with income, security, and control. Inflation has redrawn household budgets. Technology is reshaping entire industries faster than institutions can respond. The single paycheck, once the bedrock of financial planning, now feels to many like a single point of failure. And so women everywhere are doing what women have always done when the landscape changes: they are building.

Some are professionalizing what used to be dismissed as a side hustle, turning skill and passion into a structured source of alternative income, whether passive, semi-passive, or fully active. Some are launching a first enterprise after years of thinking about it. And many are already deep in the work, running micro enterprises and small-to-medium businesses that employ people, serve communities, and carry families. Every one of these women belongs in this committee.

I came to entrepreneurship the way many of us do, through necessity at times of transition in life, walking through doors that opened because I kept moving forward in spite of the challenges. Over the years I have built companies operating across twenty-six countries, in markets that could hardly be more different from one another. I have learned in boardrooms and governmental ministries, but the lessons that stayed with me were mostly learned the hard way: the contract that fell through, the market that changed overnight, and the seasons when the business grew faster than I did. I share this for one reason. I know what the road feels like at every stage, and I know that no one builds anything that lasts and succeeds alone.

That conviction was formed in some unusual places. Today I serve as CEO of Phoenix Global, headquartered in the United States and the Middle East, advising governments, ministries, and Fortune 500 companies in some of the world's most complex markets, and as co-founder and principal of Provenance Family Office Advisory. My road has run through a senior business development role supporting members of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi, and through humanitarian work in refugee camps, where I saw what a single small enterprise can mean to a family with nothing else to stand on. In June, I launched my newest venture, Wealth Warriors. I list these things for the same reason I listed the failures: they taught me that opportunity is built, never found, and that every builder is stronger with a network behind her.

That word, stage, sits at the center of how this committee will operate. A business moves through distinct seasons. There is the starting phase, where an idea must be validated, structured, and protected. There is the growth phase, where demand tests capacity and every decision about money, people, and time carries significant weight. There is the long middle, the maintenance-and-innovation phase, where a business must hold what it has built while constantly reinventing itself, because standing still in this economy is akin to moving backward. And there is the operational phase, where the enterprise is established, either thriving or still finding its footing, and where questions of leadership, succession, and legacy come into view.

The NFBPWC Entrepreneur & Small Business Committee will serve women in every one of those seasons, deliberately and without division. We will never split our programming into beginner and expert tracks. Every topic we take up will be framed twice: what it means when you are starting, and what it means when you are scaling. The founder validating her first idea and the owner negotiating her tenth contract will sit together, because each stage carries something the other needs. Experience flows down. Fresh eyes flow up. That exchange is the whole point of not only this ESB Committee, but NFBPWC as a federation.

I say that as someone who has lived it. BPW has been part of my life for years and across borders. Within NFBPWC, I serve as Vice President of the NFBPWC Virtual Club and spent 2024 to 2026 as our International Liaison. Internationally, I am a member of BPW Galway in Ireland, the BPW International U.N. Standing Committee, the BPW Women on Boards Committee, and the BPW Strategic Redesign Group for Governance and Leadership. Everywhere I have worked in this federation, I have watched the same thing happen: a woman walks in with a question and walks out with a network. That is what I intend this committee to be, at scale.

You will feel that commitment in our rhythm. As your chair, I commit that together we will deliver a full twelve-month calendar: a public-facing webinar and a working committee meeting every month, promoted together and recorded, with no dark months. Consistency builds trust, and trust builds community.

My intention is plain. This committee will be the epicenter of entrepreneurship, business growth, and leadership within NFBPWC. We will meet the marketplace as it actually is: challenging, ever-changing, and increasingly borderless. Every business today, whether a one-woman consultancy or a fifty-person firm, must look at itself through a lens of constant transformation and network expansion. Technology is rewriting cost structures, geopolitics is reshaping supply chains, and connectivity allows us to take a community business and make it global. Customers can be anywhere. Talent can be found across oceans. Globalization is the water every business now swims in, whatever its size, and our programming will reflect that reality, from practical technology adoption to certification and government contracting to taking a business beyond our borders.

Education, though, is only half of our work. The other half is commerce and community. We will come together to learn from one another's experience, and we will go further: we will build with one another, finding collaborators, customers, suppliers, and partners inside our own membership. The NFBPWC Member Business Directory and our Marketplace exist so that when a member needs a service, her first call is to another member. A federation that buys from itself, refers to itself, and invests in itself grows stronger with every transaction.

What makes this committee unlike any other seat at the table: entrepreneurship touches everything. Finance touches it. Health touches it, because a burned-out founder builds nothing. Advocacy touches it, because policy shapes the environment in which small business lives or dies. Our military-affiliated members bring bespoke knowledge pathways. Our sustainability advocates are shaping how every business will be judged for decades to come. Our leadership and mentoring programs are developing the very women who will run these companies. This committee touches every other committee and working group in NFBPWC, and cross-organization cooperation will be a defining feature of how we operate. Expect co-hosted programming, shared platforms, and formal partnerships across the federation, because a member's business does not live in a silo, and neither will we.

So, consider this an open door. If you are thinking about starting something, come. If you are three years in and tired, come. If you have built, sold, and are building again, come, because someone in this room needs exactly what you know. Watch for our monthly webinars and committee meetings, add your business to the Member Business Directory, and reach us anytime at smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org.

The renaissance is here. The business landscape will keep shifting and evolving; that much is certain. The only real question is whether we face it alone or together. In this committee, the answer is together, and we are just getting started.

Larisa B. Miller
Chair Entrepreneur & Small Business
smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

Barbara J. Bozeman
Small Business Chair Entrepreneur &
smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

Who Are You and What Do You Do?: A Practical Workshop for the BPW Community

As you know, the Entrepreneur and Small Business Committee is always bringing our members new and useful information. This workshop, led on Zoom by Agatha Barretto (BPW Curibita, Brazil and DC) is a great example—you should have been there.

It covers one of the most essential elements of anyone’s work whether you’re an entrepreneur, a corporate exec, a summer intern, or someone reentering the job force. It’s your introduction.

Like your handshake, the first few words you utter when someone asks what you do create a lasting impression for better or worse. It sketches you in the mind of the person you’re meeting with hundreds of tiny strokes, each one working together to create an image.

And that image is hard to alter. So you want them to see who you really are, and how you can help them with whatever their goals might be.

Ágatha quickly established her expertise, authority, and ease with the topic. Then she told us the personal story that changed everything about how she works.

She explained that in 2022, at the age of 31, she survived hemorrhagic stroke caused by a brain aneurysm and spent 20 days in intensive care. She left the hospital with six tiny pieces of titanium in her head and a new way of looking at everything, including what she did for work and how she did it

The first and most important lesson involved learning to “slow down enough to listen.” Then she decided to “apply it not only to my body. But to people.”

That’s all?

Yes, that’s all, and that’s actually everything.

In work and the rest of our lives the people we interact with want to be heard. They want to know, especially in a professional setting, how whatever it is that you are offering them will make their life better, easier, richer, or solve a specific problem that will lead to those outcomes.

Everyone had a chance to participate at whatever level worked for them, especially when it came to offering a company or project for evaluation and suggestions for improving the pitch.

She is the founder of 220mkt/220tek in Brazil and Global Practice Advisors in the USA, marketing and business development agencies in the global healthcare and legal sectors. Her agency helps professionals - including doctors, lawyers, , and entrepreneurs - build authority and visibility, helping them to stand out in crowded and competitive fields.

Ágatha’s mission is not just to build a successful, award-winning agency. (in 2025, 220tek was named the Best International Marketing & Business Development Agency for Doctors and Lawyers in the US.)

It’s to empower women to realize that they can be visible, grow themselves and their businesses, expand their leadership success, and maintain alliance between their strategies with their core values.” She wants to create the kind of change that lasts, and that can only happen if people listen when women talk, and that only happens if they speak so people want to listen.

Eleanore Roosevelt said it all in one sentence: People will not remember what you said; they will remember how you made them feel.

The simple process Ágatha outlined explained offers a scaffold for anyone to create an introduction or elevator pitch that leaves people feeling inclined to learn more about you. You need to tell them WHO, WHAT, WHY, and WOW.

WHO: Define your audience – who do you help? Be specific and remember, it’s not about you, it’s about what you can do for them.

“I am a consultant.”

“I help [specific audience] facing [specific problem].”

WHAT: Define your impact – what exactly do you do? It’s not what you do, it’s how what you do will change things and impact them/their business positively.

“I run workshops on financial literacy.”

“I help women eliminate financial anxiety and take control of their future.”

WHY: Define your core belief – people don’t purchase what you do, they buy why you do it. Why do you do it? Knowing that builds person-to-person trust.

“Because I believe [your mission or core belief].”

WOW: Define your unique differentiator – what makes you different from everyone else who says they do the same thing? This is the closer for your pitch. It contains three things, specific results, social proof, and genuine distinction.

“We helped [X] achieve [Y] in [specific time frame].”

Of course, the actual presentation had lots more detail and explanation—you should have been there…

Lisa Dicksteen

Proposed Changes to Women-Owned Business Contracting

On April 27, 2026, two companion bills were introduced in the Senate and the House: Ending Discrimination in Government Contracting Act (S.4390 and H.R. 8511).

This proposed legislation has brought new attention to programs that set aside contract opportunities for certified women-owned small businesses.

For many entrepreneurs, delving into federal contracting can feel like entering another world. There are certifications and agency requirements and processes that aren’t what some are used to.

The Women-Owned Small Business program (WOSB) is administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). It allows certain federal contracts to be competed on only among certified women-owned small businesses and only under certain conditions. That does not mean that all government contracts are reserved for women-owned businesses. In fact, most aren’t.

A WOSB set-aside is only available under the following conditions:

• the industry falls within SBA-designated categories where women-owned businesses have been noted to be underrepresented,
• the agency assigns that classification to the contract,
• market research supports that qualified firms are available,
• the contracting officer chooses that procurement route.

Even then, certified businesses still compete and must meet the proposal requirements including price and performance.

Supporters of the legislation believe there should be one standard with no distinctions on the basis of race or sex. They contend that with these restrictions removed, the procurement process would be simplified, the reporting requirements would be reduced, and there would be a greater competition for contracts.

Click here to find out.

Others see WOSB and programs like them as a positive in that they help women-owned businesses access opportunities they may not otherwise have. They see the tracking as a way to ensure participation. From their perspective, loss of programs like WOSB will result in fewer entry points for newer businesses as competition from larger companies increases.

As of the writing of this article, this legislation has been introduced but has not become law. Existing certification programs are still in place.

For women entrepreneurs, the most practical takeaway may simply be to stay informed, understand how the process of certification works, and be aware of the opportunities available through federal contracting. And at the same time, be attentive to the legislative changes that could affect the future of how this program works.

Additional information:

This article focused on how the legislation could affect women-owned businesses. But this legislation also includes other contracting-preference programs and reporting requirements. As with all we do – the best place for us to start is to be informed.

Members interested in learning more can explore:

• SBA: WOSB Federal Contract Program: https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs/women-owned-small-business-federal-contract-program
• MySBA Certifications Portal: Applying for/Managing WOSB Certifications: https://certifications.sba.gov/
• SBA: Federal Contracting Assistance Programs https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs
• System for Award Management (SAM) https://sam.gov/
• Ending Discrimination in Government Contracting Act:
• H.R. 8511: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8511/text?s=1&r=1&hl=hr+8511
• S. 4390: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4390/text?s=2&r=4&hl=s+4390

Barbara J. Bozeman
Chair Entrepreneur & Small Business
smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

The May ESB Challenge: Small Steps, Smart Growth

This month, we encourage every member to complete these five small but meaningful business-building steps:

• Refresh your introduction: Make sure you can clearly explain what you do, who you serve and how you help.
• Reconnect with past contacts/ customers: Reach out to at least three people who already know your work.
• Improve one online space: Update your LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, website, Google listing or business bio.
• Review your pricing or income streams: Look at what you offer and ask whether pricing, packages or services still make sense.
• Learn one new skill: Choose one that can help your business grow.

Don’t pick one – complete all five. Small Steps. Smart Growth.

Barbara J. Bozeman
Chair Entrepreneur & Small Business
smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

Would you like to list your business with NFBPWC?

• On our Website:
  • Email your logo and business information to smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org
• On our Blog:
  • https://nfbpwc.org/NFBPWC-Blog
• On our Facebook page:
  • https://www.facebook.com/NatlFedBPWC
• On our Facebook Marketplace page:
  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/nfbpwcmarketplace/

Contact us directly at: smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

Celebrating Success, Creating Growth

Growth often comes through shared wisdom, steady progress, and learning from one another.

The Entrepreneur and Small Business program extends our CONGRATULATIONS to Marsha Riibner-Cady and Cady CPR solutions.

In West Virginia, Marsha spent the last few months as a participant in the 2026 Hampshire on the Horizon competition. Participants took part in a business fundamentals course designed to help local entrepreneurs learn, grow, and pitch their vision for a chance to earn $10,000 in start-up or expansion funding.

All that hard work paid off for Marsha, as she received the Team Bungee Ascent Award, which came with a $5,000 check for her business, Cady CPR Solutions, and an executive membership in the Hampshire County Chamber of Commerce.

Well Done, Marsha!!!

STEAM in Action: Turning Digital Skills into Business Strengths

Who doesn’t think of classrooms, science labs, and “future” when hearing the terms STEM or STEAM. But for entrepreneurs and business owners, STEAM is not theoretical. It is immediate. It is practical, and it is increasingly essential.

Today’s business environments are powered by digital tools. From artificial intelligence and data tracking to online platforms and automation, we can no longer afford to consider these “advanced” skills. They are rapidly becoming baseline requirements for sustainability and growth. The challenge for small business owners, who tend to juggle multiple responsibilities – well, they just don’t have the time or access to fully engage with these tools.

ESB is not here to turn business owners into engineers. Our goal is to help translate STEAM into usable, accessible tools that can strengthen businesses. Whether it’s learning how to use AI beyond just for brainstorming, improving visibility through digital engagement, or understanding how data can guide better decisions, these are the skills that can move a business from surviving to growing.

Small businesses are critical to advancing SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) at the local level. And when entrepreneurs adopt new tools and approaches, they are not just improving their own operations, their contributions help build stronger and more resilient communities. This real-world impact extends their impact to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

From Stirring to Serving: Following Through on Action

In March, we moved from reflection to execution as we completed part two of the two-part series: Tending the Business Pot: What’s Simmering, What’s Burning, and What Needs Stirring, with From Stirring to Serving, Executing One Clear Action.

Participants identified one specific action within their business and committed to moving it forward. The focus was not on doing everything at once, but on taking one clear intentional step that creates momentum.

That shift, from thinking to doing, is where the real progress happens.

With this program, our focus was to reinforce a key principle for entrepreneurs: growth doesn’t come from ideas alone. It comes from implementation. And very often we see that the most meaningful progress begins with a single, well-chosen action.

Looking Ahead: Marsha Riibner-Cady moves from Preparations to Possibilities!

April is going to be a very exciting program and we hope you will be a part of it.

“Practice to Pitch: Supporting a Woman-Owned Business in Action” is our scheduled program on April 8th and it will give us an opportunity to come together in a real and impactful way for one of our members and her community.

Marsha Riibner-Cady, our North Carolina Past President, Past National Secretary, Past ESB Chair, and present/current all around awesome woman, is working on an exciting venture and she can use our help.

As the owner of Cady CPR Solutions she is participating in Hampshire on the Horizon, a business pitch contest and educational series in West Virginia designed to strengthen entrepreneurial growth and success.

The program includes eight sessions – six are educational, plus a practice round and a final competition, with a $10,000 grant awarded to the winner. She is one of eight businesses competing.

On April 8th, we will be using our space and time to support Marsha by having her present her pitch to us as a practice session. This is an opportunity for us to do what NFBPWC does best – offer thoughtful feedback, encouragement, and real-world perspective to help her strengthen her presentation ahead of the competition.

Marsha has also shared her vision if she wins. She plans to use the grant money to purchase AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators) for the heavy traffic areas of Hampshire County, West Virginia. This investment could have a life-saving impact on her community.

Join us on April 8th and help one of our own move from preparation to possibility. Register for this and all events on the website events page.

Barbara J. Bozeman
Chair Entrepreneur & Small Business
smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

Would you like to list your business with NFBPWC?

• On our Website:
  • https://nfbpwc.org/entrepreneur-business-program
  • Scroll down to the Business Directory Form
  • Email your logo to smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org
• On our Blog Post:
  • https://nfbpwc.org/NFBPWC-Blog
• On our Facebook page:
  • https://www.facebook.com/NatlFedBPWC
• On our Facebook Marketplace page:
  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/nfbpwcmarketplace/
• Contact us directly at: smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

February Stirs and March Serves!

Whether you are running a business, building your career, or managing the responsibilities of daily life, the patterns you build determine what you sustain.

For February, if you recall, we asked you to look at your “later” list. To consider those things you postponed for whatever reason and to think honestly about what those delays may be costing you both personally and professionally.

Women’s History Month reminds us that professional careers and business owner-ship are not just a personal endeavor. Women who came before us carved room at tables that didn’t even exist. They built companies in climates that weren’t wel-coming and they didn’t just survive – they thrived!!!

They didn’t wait for the perfect conditions. And as we know, they did it while carrying the loads of households, caregiving, ex-pectations, and community leadership all at the same time. We are not meant to operate in constant overdrive, which is why the ESB programming for February and March is so important.

Entrepreneurship has a way of nor-malizing intensity. Exhaustion is too often seen as a badge of honor or a requirement for success. We put off considerations about health, or re-flecting or adjustments as temporary. Who hasn’t said to themselves “once I get through THIS… then I will recalibrate” ? How often is does that happen – that we get to the recalibration? Our February pro-gram picked up where January left off.

“Tending the Pot – What’s Simmering, What’s Burning, and What Needs Stir-ring” was our February program, rescheduled from our normal day and time to Feb-ruary 25th. It was not a presentation but rather a working discussion – a pause to take inventory and answer the questions “What is sustaining your business right now? What is draining your energy? What feels neglected but necessary?”

Our March program – also rescheduled due to CSW commitments, will pick up the next phase: “From Stirring to Serving – Executing One Clear Action.” The new date is March 25th.

March Call to Action: Stirring

• Identify one area that needs stirring (not overhaul, just some attention)
• Be able to articulate why this area and what the best outcome would be (why stir this particular pot?)
• Attend the ESB meeting in March
• Celebrate Women’s History Month!!!!

Stay connected with the ESB Committee as we continue supporting women at every stage of their business and professional journeys.

Our February and March programming was moved to the 25th of the month. We will return to our regular schedule of the 3rd Wednesday of each month in April.

Barbara J. Bozeman
Chair Entrepreneur & Small Business
smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

Pace, Pressure, and the Cost of Later

In business and life, if January invites ambition, February is the month when reality sinks in.

Last month, you were encouraged to start the year without starting over. To keep your focus on continuation rather than reinventing. The calls to action were simple: thinking about what you would keep, what you would not want to do any more, and what you are curious about enough to try.

In February, let’s visit those answers by melding them into practice.

For most women in business, the early weeks of the year bring a familiar pattern. Goals seem clear. Commitment is strong. And then, as we often do, we start bargaining away our time and intentions with “I’ll take care of myself later.”

• “Later” after the deadline.
• “Later” after the launch.
• “Later” once things settle down.

Sound familiar???

And then comes the cycle of viewing this as a failure. A failure of discipline or true desire. But is it? Or maybe it is the result of responsibility, ambition, and the pressure to prove the business is worth the effort we pour into it.

Over time though, postponing physical and mental health becomes part of the normal operating model. Which it was never intended to be.

So, if January was about setting a direction, then it follows that February is about looking at our momentum – our pace. Are the patterns you repeat supporting both the business and the person behind it? Are you building in a way that lets you continue to grow over time.

Sustainable businesses built through constant acceleration are rare. Better to be built through attention, intention, and the willingness to question assumptions that no longer serve us.

February Call to Action:

This month – take some time to reflect on HOW your business is being carried by you.

• What does your “later” list look like?
• What can you do to mitigate the “later” syndrome?
• Determine what “later” vs “now” is costing you personally and professionally.

Stay connected with the ESB Committee as we continue supporting women at every stage of their business and professional journey.

Barbara J. Bozeman
Chair Entrepreneur & Small Business
smallbusiness@nfbpwc.org

Our next meeting is February 11th at 8:00pm EDT. See the Events page of the NFBPWC website or this magazine for more details.